We welcomed on to our team this month James and Donata Gray. We are excited to have them on board as they bring with them a large amount of youthful enthusiasm. The following is a sort of introduction to how they came to join us and what they hope to do. It is written by James Gray.

THE GREATEST GAME I NEVER WATCHED!

You wouldn’t normally expect to read that title on something from a mission agency. Aren’t we concerned with eternal not material matters?

Right now we’re thinking about moving house. It is going to cost us four times as much as we move out of community and into the burbs! And because our income is from donations we have no idea whether it will go up or down. In prayer and communication with others it still feels like the best choice to make. There’s freedom when we say, “I don’t make decisions based on finance”

“Are you taking your kids with you?”  It was a question which, though we were asked it several times, never ceased to surprise us.  Of course we were! 

No, the place we were going to was not “kid friendly”.  For that matter it was not “Christian friendly” and some might say, not even “people friendly”.

God had called us to Central Asia.  Us - not me.  That meant that we would take the kids.   I am not even sure what the alternative was.  Kennels?  Overstaying at the day care centre? 

The authorities stamped 'expelled' on her passport. But a worker in Asia still clung to God's promises.

Facing the challenges of living in India can make a single woman feel more than a bit overwhelmed.

Work on my security gate went well but caused other problems with the electricity. Although this type of inconvenience is normal here, the experience is new and unexpected for me. It is also frustrating. I would like to cross one job off of my to-do list without creating another. I often think how much easier my life would be if I had a man around. I would have someone to share the experience with even if he was not very handy.

My heart was pounding.  Van Halen’s “Go ahead, jump” was blaring.  I was hooked up, standing on a ledge, about to take my first bungy leap.  What on earth was I thinking?  I’m not even all that great with heights!  Yet I’d made a decision to take up new challenges each year of my 40’s.  What if I chicken out? Worse, what if the bungy doesn’t do its job? Trust is a curious thing indeed.

Money is always a tricky issue, and this ‘living by faith’ stuff can be more so! We decided to send our intrepid reporters to ask the WEC Directors how it really works…

Let’s start at the beginning: what is WEC's basic financial policy?
We make no public appeal for funds, believing that God prompts his people to make donations to the work and its workers in answer to prayer.

So, if you don't appeal for funds, where does your money come from?

When we first left for the Middle East with 5 children (the eldest of which had just turned 8), many people thought we were nuts.   Before we even left NZ we felt it was very important that our thinking was of going over as a team.  We look at our family as a team that belongs to the team in the city of T where we live. We have tried to instil into our children as much as we can that they are just as much part of the ministry here as we are.

Eliki and Lavenia Drodrolagi spent 16 years church planting in Chad. We asked them about their experience….

Looking back, what were your greatest challenges?
Eliki: Streets full of soldiers, extreme heat, our house being stoned, my wife harassed, and two occasions of serious illness, one in which I just wanted to die.